Maureen Plaisimond, MCLC's newest long-term volunteer, arrived in February and has quickly taken charge of our computer lab and elementary computer classes. As well as being open for regular classes, the lab is now open during recess every day for elementary students to learn, play, and explore on laptops.
Each class has a day of the week to spend recess in the lab, and students who have been respectful and engaged in class that day are allowed to come. Students are very excited about this privilege; Maureen says that the entire school learned which class was assigned which day by word of mouth almost immediately.
The lab is full every day. Students choose to play educational games, write stories in Word, or just explore the computers and what they can do. Some of the younger students are still figuring out how the computer works, how to move the mouse and click, how to open and close windows, and so on. Older students are more advanced, and one or two students come regularly after school to work on computers and are picking up new skills even more quickly.
The students have access to educational games in Kreyòl developed for MCLC by MIT professor Michel deGraff and the MIT Haiti Initiative. These games, which teach math through soccer, cooking, and other fun activities, are favorites for the students. Here, a fourth-grader plays "Machann Manje" (Food Merchant).
We're all having a great time in the computer lab with Maureen!
